Its a serious question cos it seems to me that not too many people listen to breakcore nowadays and some breakcore artists decide to change their style to either hardcore or some dubstep or dunno what. I really hope im wrong though.

Hell yes, I still listen to breakcore. The majority of the music I listen to is breakcore. But I think I know what you're getting at, so please allow me to take a historical perspective on this.

As I see it, breakcore peaked at about 2005-06. Enduser's style had matured and was putting out albums regularly and frequently. People were still blown away by VSnares early, darker, meaner albums (Shiver in Eternal Darkness, Doll Doll Doll, Find Candace), his other albums were still punching us in the face (Chocolate Wheelchair, Higgins, Cats) and had just released Rossz and was just about to drop Infolepsy and Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole. Xanopticon's Liminal Space was still fresh and he toured constantly. Fanny and Bong-Ra were the reigning kings of experimental breakcore. Hecate was like Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett and Wendy O. Williams all rolled into one, just with an army of noisy synthesizers and drum machines at her disposal instead of rock band crap.

Mirex was kickin' ass, Hymen was kickin' ass, Zod was kickin' ass, Terminal Dusk was just getting started. Hell, even Cock Rock Disco was making its mark with Duran Duran Duran and Dev/Null, the c8 forum was alive and well.

And then as we approached the end of the 00s, a lot of it just sorta fell off a cliff.

Neither VSnares nor Enduser put out albums as often as they used to. Xanopticon's only proper studio album came out 10 years ago. All three of those guys tour constantly, which is good for the scene, but the shows just don't seem as monumental as back in the earlier days.

We all know that Snares can put out an album just as brutal and mind-blowing as anything he's ever done, but it doesn't seem like he's into that sort of thing any more. He's too busy doing neo-rave acid chip tune tracks (which started with Detrimentalist and still continues) and miscellaneous other styles (the idm-reggae ep, Last Step/Sleep, Speed Dealer Moms), and every once in a while will remind us of the old days with Fool the Detector or Hospitality.

Enduser got kinda mellow for an album or two, but for the most part has seemingly fallen into the pattern of putting out the same album over and over again. Some people call it a style; some people would call it a rut. He'll still turn out a few great breakcore songs on every album, but they won't really be too much different from the breakcore songs from his previous album. It's awesome that he still tours so much, but then again he's been playing the same 10 or 12 songs in his live set for about ten years now.

Xanopticon is still incredible live, but ya, I'd love for him to put out another album. I don't know why he hasn't, because he plays all sorts of great new material live. Every once in a blue moon he'll put out an ep or a compilation track or a remix, which is cool.

I don't know if Bong-Ra still does breakcore or not. Last I heard he was doing his Kilimanjaro/Mt. Fuji jazz ensemble projects, which I understand are amazing albums, they're just not breakcore.

What about everybody else? Duran Duran Duran doesn't do breakcore any more. I saw Dev/Null last summer in LA and he was totally awesome, but it took him like 10 years to release his album, so I'm not gonna hold my breath for his second. And he rarely plays live any more. Emotional Joystick's first album is great, but he put out that 'band' album or whatever it was, nobody heard it and nobody's heard from him since. I don't know what happened to Curtis Chip, but he was the foremost idm/breakcore crossover artist in my mind. The first Puzzleweasel album is amazing, but I think he's another one of those Euro artists who turned dubstep, so he won't be heard from ever again.

I don't think Hecate makes electronic music any more. Last music I remember her putting out was some awful attempt at an electronic black metal hybrid album. Last I heard she was the naked stage dancer for some European black metal band and was making a living as a dominatrix in Berlin.

Doormouse? Otto? Lesser? Sickboy? Shitmat? Mochipet? I dunno. I always considered those guys novelty acts. Totally not what I like in music.

So what are we left with? What's the future of breakcore? Well, it's never gonna be the same again. But there are many artists that continue to release some great stuff.

Techdiff is the first that comes to mind, because his Cursed King and Black Dog releases are both mind-blowing. Unfortunately, it seems he's been pulled over to the dark side (aka dubstep), so I think it's totally up in the air whether we hear anything good from him again. Igorrr is coming on strong. The Peace Off roster is coming on strong, lead by label head Rotator. Monster X is kicking ass. Raxyor puts out good shit. Many others worth noting- Corecontax, Acrnym, Amen Orchestra, Asfast, Defrag, Ghost, The Ghost of 3.13, Meander, Nano.Strike, Slew52, Usedtobecool.

Seems like compilations make up the bulk of the albums that I hang on to these days.

So does breakcore need a revolution of some sort? I don't think so. I think those artists that I just mentioned show that there's lots of territory yet untravelled in breakcore. But generally speaking, I wouldn't say it's a dead scene, but it's pretty much on life support. Nobody shows up to the shows anymore (at least in the US. I don't know if it's any different these days in Europe or anywhere else (where breakcore has traditionally been more popular), but I suspect the same lull in attendance has been seen worldwide).

And let me say that nothing I've stated above should be construed as 'these fuckin' people owe us! Why don't they get their shit together and start making some awesome music again?!' They don't owe me or anybody anything. I'm grateful for every last one of them for giving us the music that they did, and anything they want to do with the rest of their lives is their decision. This is just how I've seen the breakcore scene evolve over the past decade or so.

I too would hope that bc artists would not change their style to or hardcore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitb

some breakcore artists decide to change their style to or hardcore

Wait, there are people into breakcore who aren't into hardcore? Wait, there's a substantial breakcore/hardcore divide that people care about? What?

I thought I listened to breakcore but now I'm not so sure anymore. I guess my breakcore camp is the not-necessarily-jungle not-necessarily-gabb(a/er) variety and not the fasdfdf breaks variety, which might be different or something. I say "I like hardcore" a lot and to me that includes breakcore as a member of its umbrella. Is this a thing I shouldn't do or something?

Yeah! At first, I was a bit aversive to it as it was so intense. But now it has become one of my favorite genres! Usually when I'm making a song, it turns into a breakcore track as I keep getting the compulsion to make the beats crazier while i'm programming.

I make a track here and there that falls under the category. In fact, I put one in the listening booth a couple of days ago, no comments . So either it's not very popular on here or I just embarassed myself with that one. Also about 90% of my "label mates" also make breakcore. Not trying to spam, but I'm going to tell you this because it pertains to your question, so look at apogsasis.net if you are interested. I think the site should have the new compilation up about now. There WERE quite a few folks on here that made breakcore, but I don't see many of them on here anymore.

i still listen too and am not opposed to making a breakcore track. i listen to a wide variety of electronic music though. theres still producers making hard breaks, it may not be as predominant as it once was but its still around if you look. i just think it can be way crazier than it is now, atleast i can envision songs in my head that are just crazy and brutal unfortunately i lack the skills to make them. but all it takes is a few quality artists to pop up and spark interest in it again. i have hope. even if it disapears for awhile i dint think itll ever be gone for good.
and really, even if no ones listens to it, you should still make what you want, who cares what everyone else is listening too. i only make tracks for myself, if other people enjoy them then thats just a bonus.